Guide-ons

[Henry Hefner]

I started to repack my trailer wheel bearings, and the job snowballed. I got the bearings apart and found pitting on the races. I ordered new parts, and decided to replace the old bunk-boards. While I had the bunk-boards off, I thought I'd knock off some rust, and repaint the trailer. I wandered through Academy Sports on a lunch break, and found some trailer lights on clearance, so I replaced them, too. :shock: See where this is going? A quick lube job slowly turned into a rebuild that I had not planned at all. Oh well, I don't have to worry about the trailer for a while. :mrgreen:
Anyway, to the subject at hand, guide-ons. The ones that were on the trailer when I bought it were welded on poorly, and more than one weld had broken, so I ground the rest off and tossed it. The grinder was out anyway, getting rid of rust. I don't own an arc-welder, so I was looking for other (cheap) options to replace them. I considered going the ladder stand-off route that others are using, but my trailer is wide enough for my boat that I really didn't need much extra width. I went to look at them at my local Home Depot anyway, but the only ones they had were the heavy-duty ones, and I figured I could get cheaper than that, so I wandered around some more and came up with a plan that actually worked out for me.

$6.49 for 10' of 1" EMT conduit.
$3.58 for 10' of 1-1/4" PVC
$1.44 for 2 PVC caps
$10.45 for 4 U-bolts

I drilled holes in the trailer for the U-bolts, eye-balling the angles to get the right angle on the guides. I was afraid that the EMT might crush if I tightened the U-bolts too much, so I grabbed an old broom handle(I never throw anything away) and cut a couple of short pieces to put in the bottom of the conduit. The fit wasn't as tight as I liked, so I bushed it with pieces cut off of an old garden hose so they fit snug even before tightening down.

I cut the PVC so that is is just an inch higher than the conduit. I haven't decided whether to fasten the PVC down or not, I see little reason to. I had some reflector tape left over from making catfish jugs, so I added some to the PVC, it might help, and it can't hurt!

 

[moi]

=D> Clever !! Should do the trick for you. :beer:

 

[huntinfool]

That will work. I would buy a can of the cold galvanizing and spray the ends where you cut the EMT. This shluld help keep it from rusting so fast.

 

[Henry Hefner]

That will work. I would buy a can of the cold galvanizing and spray the ends where you cut the EMT. This shluld help keep it from rusting so fast.

I hadn't considered that, thanks! At the very least, I could make sure that the uncut ends point down. I was afraid they would be too flimsy, but they are pretty stout. I may have lucked into a decent manufacturer of EMT.

 

[rusty.hook]

Now, do like I did and mount your lights on there to get them out of the water. No more bursting or exploding bulbs from cold water or any rusting of the insides of the bulb housing. Works great. Also helps to see when backing down the ramp in the dark. Almost every trailer down here on the Gulf Coast have the extended lights now because of the saltwater problem, see pic below.

 

[Henry Hefner]

Now, do like I did and mount your lights on there to get them out of the water. No more bursting or exploding bulbs from cold water or any rusting of the insides of the bulb housing. Works great. Also helps to see when backing down the ramp in the dark. Almost every trailer down here on the Gulf Coast have the extended lights now because of the saltwater problem, see pic below.

I may do that later. I actually had the lights on my old guide-ons, but broke the right hand one TWICE when loading the boat in windy conditions. Thanks for the tip!

 

[rusty.hook]

I also added the side guide-ons, makes loading a lot easier. I just drive on, reach over the bow and hook the eye hook from the winch and get out and go. see pic below